The Programmable Liquid Container

September 22, 2006 Packaging that intelligently enhances its contents with increased consumer customisation and personalisation choices is on the way and Ipifini’s choice-enabled packaging could well change the way liquid products are manufactured and marketed across multiple segments. The Programmable Liquid Container employs buttons on the container's surface that release additives (flavours, colourants, fragrances) into the liquid. The additive buttons allow the consumer to choose variations of the liquid in the container at the point of consumption. For example, a programmable cola bottle with buttons for lemon, lime, vanilla, and cherry flavors as well as a caffeine button allows for 32 potential choices of soda.

A programmable paint container with 20 pigment additive buttons allows the consumer to choose from one million paint colours. First cab off the rank in the Choice-Pack line of products under development is a prototype clear soda bottle available for US$250 plus shipping and handling for people interested in exploring licenses to its Programmable Liquid Container technology.

After the soda bottle will come choice-enabled pouches, further developments of plastic and glass bottles, jars, boxes and cans promise the ability to mix your own perfume, flavoured coffee, juice, even paint. Prototypes even include perfume bottles where you can make your choice one dose at a time – A with a hint of B, C, D or E. Apart from allowing consumers to select their desired variation at the time of use, the technology simplifies manufacturing, distribution, promotion and sales by allowing a single container to replace a series of product varieties., and is relevant to many industries such as beverage, food, personal care, household, paint, perfume, pharmaceuticals, just to mention a few. Sensational image gallery with prototype pictures.

Consumer demand for variety within a product line has generated a proliferation of products with different additives. Choice-Enabled Packaging is applicable to any liquid product with multiple varieties. Dr. Tod Woolf, founder and President of IPIFINI, notes that “virtually everyone who has seen our Programmable Liquid Container technology is fascinated and excited by its usefulness and consumer appeal. We believe this technology raises the bar on consumer choice.”

"Providing choice at the point of consumption creates tremendous advantages for the consumers as well as the manufacturer," noted Glenn Wachler, advisor to IPIFINI and co-inventor of IPIFINI's Choice-Enabled Packaging.

The technology is described in a robust patent application filed by IPIFINI. IPIFINI is licensing the technology to leading beverage, food, personal care, paint and pharmaceutical companies.

Mike Hanlon: Colour me curious, but as a kid I was always intrigued by the milkshake flavour dispenser at the local milk bar and the potential to mix exotic flavours combining chocolate and caramel and cherry and coffee. And those pens that offered two, then four, then eight different colours of ink from the one barrel. So when I first saw Ipifini’s choice-enabled packaging, I was like the rat with the gold tooth. Enormous potential in a host of industries, the potential to spike a drinks with several bursts of caffeine,

After Editing or Managing over 50 print publications primarily in the role of a Magazine Doctor, Mike embraced the internet full-time in 1995 and became a "start-up all-rounder" – quite a few start-ups later, he founded Gizmag in 2002. Now he can write again. All articles by Mike Hanlon